Wrist watch reviews

December 11, 2018

Thomas Earnshaw Beaufort ES-8083 (Review)

Thomas Earnshaw and other Dartmouth group watches like Spinnaker, James McCabe, Dufa and AVI-8 have been pretty common companies showing on my blog and today is no exception. We have not just one, but two Thomas Earnshaw watches today! The Beaufort ES-8083 series watches! The two variations that they sent me are the ES-8083-01 which has a white dial with silver case and black strap and ES-8083-02 which has a champagne colour dial with silver case and brown strap. I will be fair with these ones, I don’t like them, I know that there are people who like these style of watches, but I just don’t like skeleton/dress watches. But I won’t let my dislike to this design get in the way of reviewing these watches fair!

The watches were sent to me without the box, but they come in the usual Thomas Earnshaw wooden box. You can scroll back to my older reviews of Thomas Earnshaw watches to see how the box looks. The first impressions were that the watches are really big. On paper, it is said that the case is 43mm, but in reality, it looks like almost 45mm, but on the wrist, it doesn’t look that bad. I also noticed the big date function at 12 o’clock that I really like. Also, the dial with those two subdials and skeleton cutout looks like a skull which is fun detail I only noticed after some time.

The case of the Beaufort is made of 316L stainless steel. The case is very well manufactured as always and the finishing all over watch is polished and looks to be done very well too. The is measuring in at 43mm, the thickness is a whooping 16,4mm and from lug to lug it measures at 52mm. On the paper, you would think it is a middle-sized watch, but in reality, it looks very big due to that 16,4mm thickness which usually can be seen on divers, not dress watches. There are one main push pull crown and three pen pushers for the calendar function. The crown is simple to adjust the time, to adjust the month/day/date you use the three pen pushers which are also to use. The exhibition case back is a screw in type. The crystal on the back is a flat mineral crystal. On the case back you will find some specifications engraved. It is a nice addition as the cheap Chinese movement actually is pretty good looking with a lot of perlage finishing. On top of the dial sits a domed, hardened mineral crystal with AR coating. And this is the place where Earnshaw fails, I don’t know why other sister companies of theirs like AVI-8 and Spinnaker use sapphire, but Earnshaw doesn’t use one. In my opinion, sapphire is just a better option and I hope that they will fix this in the near future as that is one important thing that is missing here!

This watch dial has a lot going on. Visually, it is pretty striking, but it looks kind of cheap in my mind. I really like the Breguet style Arabic numerals, big date and that skull-shaped cutout, but the chapter ring, and the calendar function on the subdials looks a bit cheap. The white dial version is the best looking one from them all, but the champagne dial version looks a bit cheap. The white dial just looks less cluttered with many details than the champagne dial.

The movement that is inside the watch is unknown, but If I should guess it comes from a Chinese manufacturer called Huangzhou. Powered by a 29 Jewel, 40-hour power reserve and it has a hacking feature which is a good addition. The movement is cheap, but it is very well decorated with perlage. You will find finishing on the main plate, bridges and rotor, usually, this kind of finish you will find on higher end movements. The precision is maybe the only place where it has problems in my opinion because it ticks at +25 to +27 seconds a day and that isn’t maybe the best precision for a watch in this price range. I have had some Seiko watches which were less cheap and with more precise movements.

The strap is made out of genuine leather with their signature E style buckle. The strap has that alligator pattern in matte. The strap is good and supple, but I really would like if they changed these straps and started to add some normal leather grain or suede straps in different colours, it would work much better in my opinion, because of 90% of people who buy watches, swap the straps. The strap width is 22MM tapering to 20MM. The buckle is pretty, but when it comes to function it leaves marks on the leather in a certain way where the leather will wear off faster.

Overall it is an ok watch, I wouldn’t say it is the best out of Earnshaw that I reviewed, but for the price, you get a solid watch, automatic movement, good quality and finishing. The dial has complications you would normally see on higher end watches and the movement looks great. There are some drawbacks like the size because of the case thickness, but as I said, it is a decent watch and these series watches right now are highly discounted for a budget price!